The Stony Ground is the story of Cornish farmworker James Ruse, reprieved from the hangman's noose and transported to Botany Bay on the First Fleet in 1788. Ruse, commemorated as a pioneer in his adopted country, was reputedly the first prisoner ashore, carrying an officer on his back. Eventually pardoned, at Experiment Farm he became Australia's settled farmer, the ex-convict to be granted land and the first settler to become self-sufficient, bringing him into conflict with indigenous people. In this gripping historical novel the life of Australia's most symbolic convict is described in Ruse's own voice.